BigMike’s Big Journey: New 2016 Tacoma

Oh dem CVs are gonna love ya!

 

Yeah I'm really interested what kind of IFS/front diff upgrades you need to turn those bad boys.

 

You guys forget I have a Marlin Crawler! I believe the front diff and CVs will be sufficient (more on this later). If I did have a concern for the front differential then it would be while reversing up out of a steep hole (aka the inherent weakness of a high pinion design). But again, I have a TacoBox: No bouncing, no sudden/shock torque loading, and the ability to sense/feel drivetrain load and stop before failure. I do however have a concern regarding steering components (more on this later).

July 4, 2017: Stage 2 has officially begun! (continued): New meats showed up!

Later that evening progress got underway

Here is what 40s look like at full droop of a 3" UCA lift kit.



WHEW I love this!



The rear 3" lift All Pro springs at full droop look worse but the front is going to be more work since the tires also have to clear while turning.



These 40s completely dwarf Marlin's (2 yr old?) 37" IROKs...



...which is good because the Tacoma dwarfs my Hilux running the same tires.

 

Some weights...

Each 40x13.5x17 tire: 90.5 lbs



Each beefy 17x9 aluminum wheel with hardware: 43.4 lbs



For a total of 133.9 pounds. Stock 17" TRD Sport wheel with 285/70R17 BFG All Terrains: 85.3 lbs



Difference: 48.6 lbs per corner. For Rock Crawling I don't mind this weight because weight down low is favorable. This will however make the following worse:
EDIT: Whoops, I forgot, for these measurements the valve stem with pressure sensor was not included.


Issue #1: Ring and Pinion Ratio

The first issue I have with these tires is going to be available diff gearing and it's affect to on-road driveability. It's the issue I'm by far most concerned about. I knew this going in so I'll have to just bite my tongue and not complain too much, but on two occasions I've met with Nitro Gear & Axle and they have no desire to make anything lower than the 4.88:1 ratio I've already installed. They say that if anyone is going to run tires large enough to constitute more than a 4.88, then they'd change out both axles. (Why also the new, HD rear axle I'm not sure--that doesn't make sense to me.) I've known this for more than a year in fact. My issue which they don't respect stems from my minority status of having a stick shift Taco which comes with 4.30s from the factory (which is already ~5% lower than the typical factory Hilux R&P). Therefore, the 4.88s I've installed are only a 13.5% reduction whereas the 40s will be a good 30% larger. I have spoken to Yukon and there is a possibility they will make a 5.29 ratio for us but in the meantime I'll likely lose 6th gear and the amazingly nice close ratio of the 6th speed trans I've come to enjoy gear jam'n and short shifting will sadly fade away...

Some numbers...

Automatic: 3.909:1 factory R&P
-- 4.88 = 24.8% reduction which would be good for a 38.2" tire
-- 5.29 = 35.3% reduction which would be good for a 41.4" tire

Manual: 4.300:1 factory R&P
-- 4.88 = 13.5% reduction which would be good for a 34.7" tire
-- 5.29 = 23.0% reduction which would be good for a 37.6" tire

* these are literal tire heights

So I do understand Nitro's position. Because the majority of Tacoma owners don't have a deep joy of driving and by definition own an automatic, Nitro's 4.88s are good for about a 39" tire (which would probably measure 38.5" new). If an Auto owner was to run 5.29s, then to get their speedo back to stock without any other mods they'd need to run 42" tires. Nitro is then correct. Less than 0.1% of 3rd gen Tacoma owners will run 42" tires with factory IFS. Ok. I get this. But what then about Tacoma owners like myself who actually do enjoy driving? I'd really like to have 5.29s or maybe even something lower, which, in different to the Hilux community, I assume would be successful with the 3rd gen Tacoma since we #1 have a new massive 8.75" rear and, and #2 the front diff is a reverse rotation high pinion... To all my gear jam'n brothers and sisters out there, I'll post up if I hear anything back from Yukon.

EDIT #2: Sorry for being rude to auto drivers. I'm just mainly upset with but also do understand Nitro's decision.

 

I am beyond stoked to see those on the rig.

 

I can say that in my automatic 2016 with 35's it seemed a tad high and with 37's it's almost perfect but could be a little bit lower. That could be the weight though.

It can hold 70-75ish in fifth gear as long as it's flat. Sixth no chance.

 

Big Mike , great build !! what about the stock steering ? you being a rock crawler know that is a weak link , I have yet to see a upgrade for the tacoma steering ? will you be at Cantina ???? Thanks

 

Yessir!

Thank you for asking but I am currently on an event/wheeling hiatus until I get one particularly large project done at work. My goal is to have it finished before my inaugural BigMike's TacoBox Run Sept 13. So I won't make the event (nor CAL4WD's High Sierra Poker Run) (nor the FJ45 Land Cruiser Wagon Run) but we will have four employees at Cantina and our booth setup in our normal location!

July 7, 2017: Stage 2 has officially begun! (continued): Finally finished the ARBs

Since we were on the subject of differentials the thread will be happy to know I finally got my ARB air lockers hooked up

To be honest the main reason why I've procrastinated on this is because I am a big fan of belt-driven compressors.

I've never liked electric compressors. Belt driven compressors, such as the uber powerful Chrysler RV-2, which flows more air than a valve stem meaning the compressor will cycle off even while airing up a tire, which has a longer stroke & larger bore than the popular York compressor, which has an integrated oil pump so you can rev it up without it burning up, and finally which I have mounted to my Hilux's 3RZ-FE but never finished the project >_<, ...can output in excess of 15 CFM which is many times better than the average electric compressor of only around 2-3 CFM. It's so cool to have a powerful on board air system where you can air up truck after truck after truck. Moreover, I know 40" tires are going to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r with an electric compressor...

Well, after having evaluated how I'm going to mount an air compressor to the engine.....whew it's a mess in there. No wonder I've always liked 4 cyls. There is little precious engine compartment room with this 6 cyl. The main issue is that each timing cover overhangs the belt line of the engine rendering accessories mounted about 50% or higher on the engine requiring some sort of double-offset pulley arrangement making it far more difficult. Then you've got the width of a V engine that takes up any side-to-side space you'd normally have have an inline 4. Then to mount the RV-2 down low, which is a wide Twin V 2cyl pump, is impossible due to interference with each frame rail. Not good.

Fast forward to a few months ago and the keen observer would have noticed I used an electric compressor for Moab back at page 13 reply #250:


This is ARB's semi-new "Maximum performance" air compressor that they offer in an easy to carry box. This compressor is a pair of High Output motors+compressors mounted together in parallel. We sell this by itself, but having a compressor kit with tank in a box is so useful that the shop bought this one for employees to use. For the small 33" All Terrains, this max performance compressor actually kicked some serious booty. It would air up from 10 PSI to 40 PSI in about 3 minutes per tire which I thought was quite impressive for an electric compressor. Grated, this is only a 33" not aired down too far and with a large 17" rim taking up more volume, but impressed nonetheless. As for 40s that I'll surely air down as low as 3 PSI... I have no doubt it's going to be painfully slow to air up.

But it is a viable option. So here is what I've decided to do:
1. Get and mount a normal ARB High Output compressor (info on our site) in the engine bay (not my favorite location due to heat) and use that to run the lockers.
2. Carry this Max Performance compressor box around to air up my tires for now.
3. Eventually get my own Max Performance compressor (info on our site) and mount it under the bed along with maybe a 5 gallon air tank.
4. Then, to air up my tires, knowing I've got the V6 towing package's upgraded high amp alternator, I'll run all three compressor motors (High Output = 1 + Max Performance = 2) at the same time which ought to do okay.

Calculating ARB's documentation across both compressor kits, at 0 PSI, 3 X High Output Compressors will be about 8.5 CFM and at 30 PSI they will be about 6.8 CFM. This is actually not much lower than a standard York compressor so actually..... surprisingly this might work out decently.

 

First step was where to mount it in the engine bay. I first began looking in the passenger A-pillar corner to get it up high...but then I'd have more wiring to do and space constraints weren't so good there. Then I looked to place it as close to the battery as possible and found a perfect spot between it and the driver's headlight.





This does put it low but I can always add an extension hose for the compressor's air filter later. I do like how the compressor is shielded from heat by the battery and cooled by air through the headlight housing.

Removed all the inner fender trim to expose the fender wall.



Drilled four holes for the bracket



Nice fit in here. I like how the space is being utilized.



Look'n good! I used our 5mm black air line because, again, going back to my disgust with air lockers, I'd rather people just not know I had them and the iconic blue ARB lines are a dead give-a-way so screw that

 

An issue I see all the time with ARBs is a rock smashing a line or a line melting from exhaust. Once you have a leak you no longer have lockers. I've already built an emergency air locker repair kit which includes an extra solenoid, air line, and an air splice.

So I took advantage of protection wherever possible and routed the line for the rear locker through the frame rail. I did this in two steps. First I fed the line through the driver's side frame rail and exited it out this slot near the exhaust. Then I continued running it back through the same slot and once out past the brake line components I pulled the loop through enclosing the line fully inside the frame rail.

 

With the lines routed the last step was to mount the switches.

I'm a bit undecided on what to do here. I've never liked large rocker switches but the Tacoma has them everywhere plus the aftermarket makes a gazillion different rocker switches for light bars, GPS, CB, etc. custom printed rocker covers. So I'll probably keep the ARB rocker switches. For now I decided to mount them with as little modification as possible so that should I decide to move them in the future I could restore things back to stock.

The decision was made to sacrifice the left side cubby hole for the switches. I began working on a model to 3D print but then figured I could just cut the back side of the cubby hole to route the wires and should I remove them I the hole wouldn't affect the use of the cubby.

Taking the left side of the dash apart



Routing the wires through the cubby



Here is the extremely simple modification to ARB's harness to allow the front locker to be engaged without the rear locker -- EXTREMELY useful and I'd argue entirely necessary for wheeling. I understand why ARB does it the way they do which from a business perspective is better for warranty and reliability concerns. Just connect the power-in for the front locker switch directly to the power-in of the rear switch. Done.



Because this is temporary (lol whatever that means) I just placed small cutouts of cardboard between each switch and wrapped them with tape compressing the cardboard for a nice firm block of switches.

 

July 7, 2017: Stage 2 has officially begun! (continued): Finally finished the ARBs

Here is the cubby remounted with the hole shown. For anyone else considering this, I recommend cutting the hole much smaller than this. All you need to do is pass female butt connectors through.



And finally the end result! The tops of the switches do contact the bezel slightly, so if I chose to keep this and 3D print my own then I'll shift the switches down a few mm.



Did a pressure test of 10 mins and the compressor never cycled with both lockers engaged so they are ready to go!

Finally after ordering a new Tacoma with a rear locker 705 days ago, I've got a Tacoma with a rear locker!

 

Why did you get air lockers I'd you don't like them? Sorry if you already answered this earlier.

 

No problem and thank you for the question.

The main reasons would be that (1) Toyota hosed me by refusing to sell an Electric Locker-equipped manual transmission 6cyl AccessCab 4WD Tacoma, and (2) Toyota does not offer an Electric Locker for the front differential. So no matter what I'd have to get a front air locker, and because I'll have an air system required to operate said locker I might as well also run an air locker in the rear rather than swapping out to the smaller rear e-locker automatic/DoubleCab axle (which I did consider).
If I may embellish...

Reasons why I dislike air lockers:

1. Lack of a fail-safe.
My main gripe is that there is no fallback or fail-safe to both ARB or Zip air lockers: The air locker requires constant air pressure to function. If your wiring short circuits and you run out of fuses, if your air line ruptures, if your compressor dies, or worse if a large-enough internal leak occurs inside your differential, then the locker will no longer function. This might have changed with newer designs but I remember reading back in the 90s that the ARB requires around 45 PSI to engage and a constant 30-something PSI to remain locked.

Conversely, with the Toyota Electric locker, if your wiring short circuits and you run out of fuses, if you're not running one of our Motor Guards and your electric motor takes a rock and gets smashed, or if the electric motor stops working due to rust or corrosion, you can take 1 x 12mm socket and 1 x 10mm socket, remove the entire electric motor housing, and use a medium size flat head screwdriver to manually engage or disengage the locker. So no matter what, short of actually grenading the differential, the e-locker can get you home. (I am aware that the new 3rd gen has an improved rear e-locker design but I strongly suspect the same failsafe exists.) This is useful for trails where you almost have to have a locker to get out of camp in either direction such as Rubicon: One way requires going up Cadillac Hill and the other up the Big Sluice to exit the trial from main camp.

Off topic: Air lockers are designed this way because in general a locker is something that is only needed when stuck and therefore should (hopefully ) be used the least. If it required constant air pressure to remain disengaged, then while taking a corner on the freeway should the worse happen and a seal leak or an air line rupture you'd suddenly have the locker try to engage at a very high RPM which could very well cause a loss of control of the vehicle and damage to the locker. I have heard of an air locker that does operate in this reverse manner but it is only intended for competition Rock Crawling use.

BTW if a leak does somehow occur inside the differential that is large enough to prevent locker operation, then it'll likely also be large enough to pressurize your differential housing and we've seen axle seals and/or pinion seals get pushed out resulting in gear oil leaks. So not only have you lost the ability to lock your differential but now you've also got an oil leak. Not fun.

Possible reasons for an internal leak mostly stem from installation issues. Depending on air locker design, an internal copper air line runs over the top of the rotating ring gear. The diff builder is aware of this and provides clearance but during installation it only takes a lil bump of the copper line against the axle housing to push it into the ring gear or even a crack or pinhole leak in the line. There is also a rubber o-ring that has the job of holding back 120+ PSI of air pressure, and once this o-ring wears out from heat cycling and metal in your gear oil, it will begin to leak to the point where the locker no longer works.


Back on topic. Other than the above, my additional gripes are purely personal

2. Non-sneaky.
Marlin taught me to only engage lockers when they are needed, and in my opinion there are only two times when this is so: (1) When you're stuck, and (2) When your Marlin Crawler is engaged and you're dropping down something quite steep without brakes that has poor traction, such as an off-camber granite ledge with a lot of lose dirt.

The reason for (1) is obvious but the reason for (2) not so much: We all know that when your differential is open there is a chance that torque from the engine will overpower available traction at a tire and cause that tire to slip. Well, the opposite is also true in that if the vehicle has an acceleration force acting on it (such as gravity) while also having enough engine compression brake force to resist such acceleration (thank you TacoBox!), then a tire can become unloaded and slip despite not having engine torque applied to the axle shaft. You can therefore potentially lose control of the vehicle and slide down an obstacle requiring the driver to then have to apply brakes. Sometimes insult is added because now with the truck being accelerated additional sliding is required for the brakes to regain control and that could cause you to run off-line and get even more stuck. So hopefully the path is straight where little steering is needed and just leave the locker(s) on to prevent all of this. Better to be safe than sorry. In these scenarios you'll likely find at least one of my lockers engaged even before any tire has slipped.

But I ask what's the use of getting through a set of rocks with the lockers on from the start? Most trucks can do that given enough ground clearance. You're no longer special. What's cool in my opinion is to use the low gearing of the TacoBox and finesse it: Ease off and let it idle in gear, have ample time to hunt slowly for traction to the right, slowly bring the wheel around to the left, feather the throttle, feel the feedback of each tire lug through the steering wheel, Crawl it, work some magic, listen to the suspension load and unload, and then at the moment when the tires and the gearing just so happen to find that small window of traction and a tire grabs and you resume forward progress MAN OH MAN! that is such an amazing feeling!! Unfortunately you can only do this when you've got the time to play around and enjoy it. If I'm in a long line of rigs I'll only spend a few seconds trying to do something open-open until I engage a locker... otherwise you'll get blamed for holding up traffic by having what we call "Crawler-itis"...

...but once I'm moving again in most situations I'll disengage the locker. Why? I do this (1) to resume the challenge, (2) to reduce the load on my axles and suspension, and (3) so I can maneuver and make corners as there are times where a locker won't disengage due to the shafts being loaded and if this doesn't happen before the next corner you'll be regretting it for sure.

I therefore like to cycle my locker and I love how Toyota e-lockers are so quiet that with the engine running you can't even hear them. Maybe I don't want bystanders or even my spotter to know I've disengaged my lockers. I don't like turbochargers and would rather not have two tiny blow off valves under my hood. I do plan to remedy this as we carry solenoid exhaust port elbows which provide a way to route solenoid exhaust pressure through a baffle, but this is faaaaar too low a priority for me right now

3. There is no visual indication that your air lockers are actually locked or unlocked.
I've never owned a Toyota with factory-equipped e-lockers so I don't know how Toyota does this (I assume some indicator lamp within the instrument cluster), but when I do my custom wiring on e-lockers installed into older Hilux trucks I connect each e-locker toggle switch's internal light to the shift rail position switch located on the e-locker housing providing a true indication of the differential being locked or not. This is not possible with the ARB. With the ARB, all you do is flip a switch and by default the switch's "ON" light illuminates. There is no actual electrical connection to the locker itself. That light means nothing. It could take 4 or 5 tire rotations until the splines inside the air locker happen to align and the air pressure finally forces the clutch gear into place. Disengage the ARB and the light turns off but the locker could very well remain locked all the way through your next corner on the trail.

4. Old school wheelers love to smack-talk the E-Locker.
I don't know why but it seems everyone on the trail has this idea that Toyota e-lockers take forever to disengage and this is simply not true. In my experience, the torsion created by the spiral spring always locks or unlocks my diffs the moment the load on each shaft equalizes. It is the same working principle as the air locker. An argument could be made that the shift collar of the e-locker uses a more fine spline design requiring a smaller window for alignment but the ARB clutch ring is a much heavier and larger object that the air pressure must move and I've seen ARB rigs struggle with locking/unlocking also so I don't know what the big deal is. I therefore love using and giving credit to the Toyota e-locker, proving that it works just as good as the ARB!

5. It's not made by Toyota.
Toyota already offers a locker option so given the choice I'd rather use it and support Toyota!


To the credit of the ARB Air Locker:

1. It is not only the very first actual/positive engagement locker the Toyota truck ever received, but the first ARB was designed for the Toyota truck (the first ARB part number, p/n RD01). So we love them. Marlin has even toured their factory in Melbourne, Australia. It has a tremendous heritage and respect from us Toyota guys which has long since spread out to Jeeps and the entire off-road community.

2. It replaces the Toyota carrier assembly with an entirely new and larger high strength carrier. It's a total strength upgrade for the differential, even if you never lock it, it is much stronger than the factory differential open or locked.

3. The weak-link of the Electric Locker is that it uses a slide collar to engage the differential by passing through the inner diameter of a carrier bearing. Therefore the diameter of this collar must be made small, especially compared to the large clutch gear of the ARB which is essentially a large shift collar, so it is inherently weaker in comparison.

While the ARB is certainly the strongest option, personally I wouldn't say this downplays the e-locker. In our experience it is rare to see an e-locker break on the trail. I fully trust the ones in my Hilux with my life (FJ80 Land Cruiser front e-locker + 1st gen Tacoma V6 rear e-locker). But still, I have to admit, it is nice knowing that I've got the strongest locking differentials possible especially considering how heavy the Tacoma is.

We have an incredibly high reputation in the special way Marlin builds differentials different from the factory, and here are some links for anyone interested

ARB Air Locker rebuilt differentials


Zip Air Locker rebuilt differentials


E-Locker rebuilt differentials


Regards,
BigMike

 

Thanks for the thorough explanation. I love the idea of #3 and I might pursue doing something like this in the future on my 85.

I have both the elocker on my 2010 and an ARB locked/locked 5.29 geared 85. I like them both but prefer the 85 (for way more reasons than the lockers). But I understand where your coming from in your decision.

Thanks again for sharing!

 

@BigMike do you know if Yukon is planning on building Grizzly lockers for the 8.75" diff?

 

I emailed our rep at Randy's and will reply back with the answer.

July 9, 2017: Stage 2 (continued): Suspension

Finally with working lockers I was one step closer to being Rubicon-ready. At this point I had one and a half weeks to go before TLCA's annual Rubithon event, which is the organization's largest Rubicon run and will be my first time with the Tacoma at the 'Con. This event is normally held in June but excellent snow fall pushed the date back to mid-July (good for me).

The first and most obvious step in making the transition from 33s to 40s is suspension work. I am much against body lifts (because they don't aid in under chassis ground clearance and add complexity ) and of course would never consider installing an ugly front differential drop kit, not even on my worst enemy's ex-wife's lawyer's hairdresser's CPA's deceased step-father's Mitsubishi Montero that was left behind in his will and used by his wife's Alpaca's veterinarian's dentist's bathroom janitor's toilet paper supplier that was regularly used as a cat litter delivery vehicle every Wednesday afternoon at 2:30pm from a local Safeway.

With that out of the way, the only choice is quite clear: Continue on from the All Pro 3-inch Upper Control Arm lift kit by upgrading to their Long Travel Kit. I do like how AP has extended the width to only 2" wider per side as apposed to other kits which I think are too wide and probably better suited for the dunes (not my cup of tea) (sand is for litter boxes).

Out with the old...





In with the new!!

 

The first thing to mention is that unbeknownst to you guys and gals I've been working secretly behind the scenes with a friend to aid in the development of some really cool new features coming to IFS owners! That's right, my Tacoma is helping change the face of the Long Travel Kit!

I will be posting more about this later, but my goal is to improve the strength and Rock Crawling capability of the IFS so that going SAS is a harder decision to make. More to come later!

 

July 10, 2017: Stage 2 (continued): Suspension (continued)

Moving on, I had Rocky prepare my spindles. T-minus 4 days to Rubithon!







Nice welds

 

Painted, dried, and reassembled



Lower ball joint mounts clearanced



July 11, 2017: Stage 2 (continued): Suspension (continued) Shocks *finally*

With only three days to go before Rubithon, my new, longer shocks **finally** arrived!!



SHEEESH these took a while to get. Apparently Fox was on a national back-order for these, p/n 880-02-953, and beings I am an avid Mountain Biker who has always liked Fox shocks I was committed to staying with Fox. It was Poly Performance who came through and was able to get me apparently the last pair drop shipped direct from Fox. Thank you Poly Performance!!

Here they are compared to the Fox shocks AP supplied with their 3" UCA lift kit (left). Much longer with much more shock shaft exposed. Very, very nice!



Test fitted



AXLES

One thing I forgot to mention about is that THREE MONTHS AGO I ordered a RCV full-300M 2-inch longer-than-stock front axle set and they STILL had not arrived. Folks. We are T-minus three days here and I'm supposed to run 40" tires through the 'con?! RCV texts me and says the axles should be delivered by Thursday.....the day I am leaving for Loon Lake. So two weeks ago I prepared a contingency plan which was to get 2"+ Chromoly inner shafts from Currie when Jon from All Pro, in hearing of all the trouble I was having with RCV, offered to lend me his own personal set of used Tacoma axles already assembled with Currie inners!

So those were also in the mail and expected to be delivered at any time. So I had two sets of axles coming. The amazingly generous offer from Jon/All Pro was huge--but these are axle sets that are still running the factory Toyota CVs. I was okay with running 40" tires on factory CVs because my super low gearing gives me the option of going easy on the shafts, but of course I am hoping for the complete RCV shafts.

The shipping race of axle deliveries was on and meanwhile I was back to work!